Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you just want to go out and fight everybody, 'cause you've been whipped and chased by hounds. Well that might not be livin', but it sure as hell ain't dyin'. And dyin's what these white boys been doin' for going on three years now. Dyin' by the thousands, dyin' for YOU, fool! I know 'cause I dug their graves. And all the time I'm diggin', I'm askin' myself, 'when, O Lord, when's gonna be our time?' The time's comin' when we all gonna hafta ante up and kick in like men, LIKE MEN! You watch who you callin' nigger. If there's any niggers 'round here, it's YOU! Smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin' nigger! And if you ain't careful, that's all you ever gonna be!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I want 600 pairs of shoes and 1200 pairs of socks... and anything else you've been holding out on us, you piece of rat filth!

Kendric, quartermaster: I don't have any.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Not for niggers you don't.

Kendric, quartermaster: Not for anybody.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I see. pity. I'll just look around to see if you haven't misplaced them...

[He begins to smash up the place]

Kendric, quartermaster: HEY!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Son of a bitch!

[smashes the place even more]

Kendric, quartermaster: Goddamn it, you can't...!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Can't I? I'm a colonel... you nasty little cuss! You think you can keep 700 Union soldiers without proper shoes because you think it's funny? Now, where would that power come from?

"I ain't much about no prayin', now. I ain't never had no family, and... killed off my mama. Well, I just... Y'all's the onliest family I got. I love the 54th. Ain't even much a matter what happens tomorrow, 'cause we men, ain't we?"

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